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WelfortSun, 05 Aug 2018 16:33:21 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8welfort/meditationshttps://feedburner.google.comThe Upanishadshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/welfort/meditations/~3/5Ai6qUMaLvw/
http://welfort.com/the-upanishads-2/#respondSun, 05 Aug 2018 16:33:21 +0000http://www.welfort.com/?p=1492The Upanishads are a collection of over two hundred teachings including stories, metaphors, and instruction on meditation. This non-homogenous array reflects the orally transmitted nature of the teachings. The wide variety of information in the Upanishads does not reflect a unified Yogic philosophy. Nevertheless, deep consideration concerning the innate divinity of humanity is clearly present.

The roots of the word Upanishad “Upa, Ni, Shad” mean literally “Near, down, sit.” The implication is that these teachings were given from teacher to student in close proximity. It also implies the teachings may not be immediately obvious and require studentship and dedication to absorb. The Upanishads were teachings given by the highest classes of society–the warrior/ruling class and the priest class. These teachings were not available to others in society.

Although the Upanishads are part of the Vedic corpus, they carry quite a different message. Veda literally means “knowledge,” so the Vedas were books of knowledge. The focus of the earlier Vedas is on how to live a good life and the explanation of the correct performance of rituals. Early Vedic teachings do not show a clear interest in spiritual liberation or yoga. The Upanishads, forming part of the later Vedic teaching, speak of the concepts of transmigration and re-birth.

The process of embodying the teachings of the Upanishads is also given:

Listening

Contemplation

Meditation

This methodology of learning is not casual. In first listening to a teaching—really listening —we open to the teachings fully, with a beginners mind. It is said in the Upanishads that we should listen “like a deer listens to music.” If you can imagine the sensitivity of a deer’s ears and the alert quality of the animal, the nature of this sort of listening is apparent.

After listening fully, we contemplate the teaching. We should contemplate the teachings “like a cow chews grass.” A cow will continue to chew the same mouthful of grass, preparing it for digestion for quite a while. During this process, we start to make the teachings relevant to us, to embody them as wisdom and not just information–chewing them over, looking at them from different viewpoints.

Finally, we assimilate the teachings “the way a swan can separate milk from water in a lake.” If milk is poured onto a lake, a swan can separate out only the milk to drink, and leave the water behind. In this way we take the essence of teachings that are relevant to us.

The key teaching of the Upanishads is simple:

Atman = Brahman

Or

Individual self = Universal Self

In Sanskrit, the phrase “Tat tvam asi,” or “You are That,” says it all. You are that which you seek. Consciousness is ever-present, not a state of mind or being to be attained. Rather, our true Self simply needs to be revealed by identifying, and then putting aside, all that is not our true nature. As the artist Michelangelo said, in order to make a sculpture he simply had to “remove all the stone that was not a part of the statue.

The Upanishads also transmit the teaching that this Universal Self can in fact take human form. This teaching is profound in that it allows a respect for any other religion, as Supreme Consciousness can take any form, or no form at all. This is an inclusive way of looking at the variety of spiritual practices we pursue.

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http://welfort.com/the-upanishads-2/feed/0http://welfort.com/the-upanishads-2/The Bhagavad Gitahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/welfort/meditations/~3/zsipRhN_isw/
http://welfort.com/the-bhagavad-gita-2/#respondSun, 05 Aug 2018 16:33:19 +0000http://www.welfort.com/?p=1496Written in approximately 400 BCE, the Bhagavad Gita tells the story of Arjuna, a great warrior and archer poised and ready to fight in a battle between two armies led by warring cousins–the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Arjuna asks his chariot driver, who happens to be Krishna–a manifestation of God–to drive his chariot between the two armies so he can see who he is going to fight. He scans the opposing army, the Kauravas, and sees in the ranks his relatives, friends, and teachers. Disheartened by the prospect of killing his revered teachers and friends, he drops his bow and collapses to the chariot floor in dismay–he cannot bring himself to fight.

It is in these circumstances that Krishna, who up until now has been Arjuna’s friend, becomes his teacher and explains why Arjuna must fight. Arjuna is a warrior and it is his dharma, his work, to fight. Arjuna’s skillful actions in battle will only bring about an ending of life in a specific form, as in fact all beings are immortal and have had many incarnations before and will have many after.

Krishna goes on to explain how the practice of yoga can free Arjuna from the karmic bonds of his action. He clarifies that the fruits of actions, any action, are not under our control. It is only the actions themselves that we have authorship or power over. There is a subtle but important difference here between attempting to be unattached to outcome–truly an impossibility, as any action we take, even brushing our teeth, we do to effect a result–and simply directing our attention to the work itself, understanding that causality is often beyond our present limited understanding.

Krishna also outlines different forms of yoga: Karma Yoga, or the yoga of action; Bhakti Yoga, or the yoga of devotion; and Jnana Yoga, or the yoga of wisdom. Krishna states that any of these practices can lead to a complete understanding of who we really are.

The Bhagavad Gita is a revolutionary text in that it opens the doors of yoga practice to everyone, in any class of society. As far as we know this had never happened before in the yoga tradition. Yoga had until now been reserved for only the upper echelons of society and excluded women. Monastic traditions were exclusive in their own way as well. Not only is yoga now made inclusive, but also the need for an intermediary between man and God, such as a priest, is removed. Krishna explains that even a humble offering from the heart like a leaf or a little water can be a devotional offering.

The Bhagavad Gita’s allegorical significance is illustrated at the end of the fourth chapter, as Krishna inspires Arjuna to take action, “Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in thy heart. Be one in self-harmony, in yoga, and arise, great warrior, arise.”

You awake to the smell of the earth as the sun warms and begins to evaporate the dew. Your simple portable dwelling provides some shelter from the elements. Your tribe rises at dawn; children scamper around playing. You know everyone in your tribe, and they all know you. When later that day game is brought back from the hunt to be cooked, it is shared by all. When the sun sets, a fire is made and you observe the wood turning into heat, light, and ash. The smoke rises into the sky where the stars are so clear due to the lack of any ambient light that you can recognize constellations like old friends. When it is time to sleep, sleep comes easily to a body in tune with the rest of nature. When the tribe moves on, you look behind and all that is left of your presence there are the folded grasses where your shelters were, and a fire-pit. In a few weeks even this will become invisible.

The idea of “having relationships” with others in your tribe is not a concept anyone understands. You have known these people all your life. Some you like more than others, but there is no getting into and out of the relationship you have with them. They literally are your relations, just as are the animals and plants. The children around you are everyone’s responsibility, and they learn different skills from others in your tribe as they move freely around.

This is a gift economy. Currency does not exist, and the natural response to the abundance of life on the earth is one of gratitude. No one has the idea that human life should try to be prolonged, or that youth is better than maturity. The spirits of humans and animals inhabit the earth.

The scenario above may sound utopian. That is largely because through projection and some quite unscientific studies by 19th century Europeans, we have been led to believe that life for our ancestors was “brutish and short.” This was not the case. Nor was it the case that our ancestors were less healthy than we are today. Eating a varied “organic” diet, sugar in any form being quite hard to come by, and walking miles daily, our predecessors were generally fit, healthy, and competent at a variety of skills.

Our nomadic ancestors’ deep integration with the natural world made recognizing the continuity of all things their first nature. Only when we began to coerce nature to supply us with more than we could readily consume, through the advent of agriculture, did we remove the idea of spirit from nature, for a gift can never be demanded, and once demanded, it is no longer a gift.

Leaving behind a state of recognition of the sacred nature of all things, a hierarchy of spirit evolved. Once removed from the earth, spirit was moved to the mountains – the domain of ancient gods – and then the heavens. Up is better than here, down is even worse. To ascend toward is good, whereas to descend into is bad. This “verticalism” also diminishes our horizontal connection with one another. When you look at the history of organized religion, the representative of god is “higher up” – on a platform, a throne, or if you are walking about, a very tall hat.

The muddy, fecund ground of everyday life was now not sacred, and along with a vertical model of sprit came another model – purity: white, translucent, unstained. Our instinctual, carnal human nature became less than spiritual and finally sin, as well as an abstract idea of heaven, pursued. Man’s purpose in life was now not only to restrain outward nature via the cultivation of land and domestication of animals, but also to restrain his inward nature. That is, to become cultivated.

The creation myth of Adam and Eve flung out of the garden of Eden has been inverted. A garden is the natural world, cultivated by man. Adam and Eve were flung intoa garden, where they had to till the soil by the sweat of the brow.

The origins of yoga are somewhat mysterious, with the tradition being largely oral in nature. Carvings found in the Indus river valley civilizations of Harrapa and Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure seated in what may be a yoga pose are dated at 2500 BCE.

The origins of agriculture begin approximately 5,000 years before this. The practice of yoga arises after the agricultural revolution. Most, but not all hunter-gatherers became farmers cultivating the land. Farmers must protect their crops, build fences, store excess food, and be able to trade that excess. So agriculture precipitates ideas such as ownership, control, currency, policing, and law. Stratification of society ensues. Farmers eat a mono-diet of planted crops and domesticated animals, as opposed to the varied diet found in season by hunters and gatherers. The negative effect on health and lifespan in many cultures was enormous. The practice of yoga may have arisen as a cure for this new lifestyle: a way of reconnecting with natural forces and rhythms that were becoming forgotten.

The tools of yoga are the ones we already have: body, breath, and mind. Some of the later yogas’ view of the body is much different than the idea of the self divided from spirit that has become embedded deep in our culture, attitudes, and behavior.

The word yoga can mean “union,” or an application of means; in this case, it signifies the means to reconnect something. Let’s remember that something is already here. There is no separation of spirit from nature except in our mind. Any dedicated outward searching will ultimately lead us back to a remembrance of this ground of being. The ideas of the mind drop into the heart and body, and like any thing rooted to the earth, the flowering of our awareness is related to how much nectar is drawn up from our connection to the primal elements from which we grew.

]]>http://welfort.com/choose_your_friends/feed/0http://welfort.com/choose_your_friends/My visit to Wat Pah Nanachat or monastery romantichttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/welfort/meditations/~3/qeU4niWbloU/
http://welfort.com/wat_pah_nanachat_thai_monastery/#respondWed, 22 Feb 2017 08:00:47 +0000http://www.welfort.com/?p=1944This post is about my visit to the monastery Wat Pah Nanachat. I visited it on 18th of February, 2017 and I love it very much. The place itself is so clean, fresh, beautiful and serene that as soon as we came there with my friend we both became calm, relaxed and peaceful. Speaking truly, I expected to see here dirty Thai style monastery, but this place turned out to be so nice, clean and tidy that I immediately fell in love with it.

The place doesn’t look like a monastery because, in my opinion, a monastery should have a temple, but there is no temple there, just a meditation hall, dormitory, kitchen and several houses in the forest. This place looks more like a summer camp and I would call it not a monastery, but a meditation center.

If you want to visit the monastery you can read this link about how to get there and about the monastery life: Staying at Wat Pah Nanachat, but the reality is a little bit different.

Advance letter

You don’t need any letter to come to this monastery. On the monastery website they ask to send a paper letter to the monastery before you come here and you can not find an e-mail or phone on their website. In practice you can come without any letter at all. We arrived at the monastery without any preliminary letter at 1 PM. We met a smiling monk and he told us that the guest monk would come at 3 PM and asked us to wait for him. At 3 PM the guest monk asked us to fill a simple one-page form and showed us around. He even didn’t ask about a letter. So you can come without a preliminary letter and they will allow you to stay. But…

An Englishman who came here third time for one month, told me that he wrote a letter three times and nobody answered him. He also told me that supposedly they answer with a refusal only if there’s no place here. Also he told me that if you come without a letter, they can refuse you, if there’s no place.

While we waiting for a guest monk we went to 7 Eleven which is 15-minute walk from the monastery. Near the 7-Eleven there are several Thai eateries in on which we eat two portions of Som Tum (traditional thai papaya salad) with noodles just for 60 baht, it’s about $2. And it was so delicious!

Women

Women are allowed here! Although it’s written on the monastery website that women can not visit the monastery, it’s turned out that this information is false. Women are welcome here! They live separately from the men, but we chanted and meditated together.

Electronic gadgets

Electronic gadgets are not allowed here. You can not use your smartphone or computer. But it’s not strict. I used my smartphone all the time to make photos and to write this article and I even didn’t have to hide it.

Dormitory

We slept here. This is my bed).

It was very cold to sleep at night, very cold, and the blankets that they gave us were not warm enough to help. But you can put on any clothes and sleep in them.

We were given white clothes. They were surprisingly clean.

We get up at 3 AM and at 3.30 we went for chanting. I loved it so much! There is something mysterious and majestic in buddhist chanting. We chanted until 4 a.m. and until 5 a.m. we meditated. I do not know why but to meditate here is so easy: it was very easy for me to focus on my breath and no thoughts disturbed my mind. And it was easy to sit one hour, to me, one hour passed so quickly as if it were 5 minutes.

After meditation I took a broom and swept the sidewalks. I couldn’t imagine before that to swipe sidewalks from the fallen palm leaves at 5 a.m. is such a pleasure. Oh no, it’s not a pleasure, it’s a bliss. I think now that janitors are the happiest people on Earth.

After the swiping I wrote this article. Usually I go to sleep between 1 and 3 a.m. and I never tried getting up at 3 a.m. So I never thought that to work at 5.30 AM is so easy. I felt myself so fresh, full of energy, serene, my mind was clear, I had no disturbing thoughts and it was such a pleasure to write an article at 5.30 a.m. Now I think that may be it’s a good idea to go to sleep at 9 PM and get up at 3 AM every day. At least I should try.

In the morning lots of Thai lay people came to the monastery and they chanted and meditated with us. They brought lots of food with them and we ate all this alms food after 8 AM. The process of having food organized as a buffet. There are lots of food on long tables and monks are the first who come to the tables and take the food, after the monks novices and students like us can take the food, and after us Thai lay people took the food.

Skeleton

There’s a skeleton in the meditation hall. I’ve found the story of this skeleton to be very strange and not suitable for the monastery. A monastery monk has told me this story. The skeleton is a skeleton of a woman who had cancer and who suffered a lot because of terrible pains and she shot herself with a gun. You can see a hole in the skull in the temple area. Why her skeleton is in the monastery now? The monks wanted to have some skeleton in the meditation hall to remind them of impermanence and to practice meditations with it. This woman was a wife of one of the important sponsors who helped to establish this monastery. Before death she bequeath her skeleton to the monastery, that’s why they put it there to remind everyone of impermanence and suffering. I am not sure that this is a completely true story, because it looks very strange to me, but I wrote my understanding of what the monk had told me. If you know other story about this skeleton, please, share it in the comments.

Negatives

I loved this place, its fantastic, but as usual every place has it positives and negatives. What are the negatives of this place?

There’s little to no guidance. You’ll be here alone. You are not supposed to speak. If you don’t know what’s buddhism and how to meditate, you’ll get no help. Of cause you can ask for help and the guest monk and guests will answer your questions and help you, but you should be ready to do everything yourself.

Thai pop music. On the evenings there was loud Thai pop music outside. It didn’t bother me, but some guests found it annoying.

Lots of mosquitoes.

Very cold at nights and you have to sleep outside. But I loved it!

Dhamma talks in Thai language only. Although Dhamma talks are supposed to be in English here, they were only in Thai language while I was there.

Toilets and shower

Toilets and shower are Thai style and are in the same room, but clean and nice.

Taxi

It takes 20 minutes to get to the monastery from the Ubon airport and 180 baht. I don’t know why, but despite the taxi meter shows only 100 baht, taxi drivers on our way to the monastery and back to the airport asked 180 baht. When you are at the airport there are lots of taxis there. And you can order a taxi from the monastery by the phone 045 265 999, but you should ask somebody who speaks Thai to call this number. A taxi arrived in 5 minutes to the monastery after we called this number.

Wat Pah Nanachat Photo Gallery

[See image gallery at welfort.com]
]]>http://welfort.com/wat_pah_nanachat_thai_monastery/feed/0http://welfort.com/wat_pah_nanachat_thai_monastery/How do a foreigner become a buddhist monk in Thailand?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/welfort/meditations/~3/dfh0We2jxZ0/
http://welfort.com/how-do-a-foreigner-become-a-buddhist-monk-in-thailand/#respondMon, 21 Nov 2016 16:58:01 +0000http://www.welfort.com/?p=1554There is an international forest monastery Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand where any foreigner unfamiliar with Thai culture and language can take on the yellow robes and become a Buddhist monk. Sorry, not any foreigner, only men can become monks in Thailand, no women(. There are several stages that you go through at Wat Pah Nanachat in making the transition from a lay person to a monk (bhikkhu).

Stages of the transition from a lay person to a Thai Buddhist monk (bhikkhu)

First stage (about one month): an eight-precept layperson. Having the intention to prepare for ordination, you would first stay in the monastery as an eight-precept layperson for more than one month.

Second stage (about six months): a white-robed postulant (anagarika, ‘homeless-one’, ‘pah-kow’). After the first stage you can ask the abbot if you can become a white-robed postulant (anagarika, a ‘homeless-one’, in Thai known as a ‘pah-kow’). The abbot will discuss it with the sangha, and with their approval, you can formally commit yourself to being a pah-kow by taking the eight precepts in a sangha meeting, and from then on train in the monastic routines at Wat Pah Nanachat continually.

Requirements. For becoming a pah-kow, there are no specific requirements, other than showing the community that generally you are in good physical and mental health. You need to have health coverage or a travel insurance and sufficient funds for emergencies, possible visa extensions, and further travel.

Third stage (about a year): a brown-robed novice (samanera). After about six months as a ‘pah-kow’, you can proceed to request the Going Forth (pabbajja) as a novice (samanera). The main difference between a pah-kow and a novice is that a pah-kow is still in a test phase of taking on monastic life for long-term, and thus still keeps his financial independence, while the novice adopts an additional precept that prevents him completely from ownership and the handling and use of money. This makes the samanera a full alms mendicant relying on the support of the lay community for his living. Novices wear the same brown robes as the monks and train in almost the same ways as the monks, but their explicit code of rules is much smaller and less detailed. At Wat Pah Nanachat novices already start studying the monks rules, and also acquire various basic skills of monastic life such as chanting and making robes and other requisites. Otherwise novices practice meditation and apply themselves to the duties of communal life just as the monks.

Fourth stage (five years): a new monk (bhikkhu). If everything goes smoothly during the previous stage, one is well prepared, and the Sangha considers one ready for bhikkhu life, after at least one year as a novice, one can proceed to request Higher Ordination and become a part of the bhikkhu Sangha. This is a typical course of training that our monastery has used for many years now and seems to work well. It is a gradual way of becoming familiar and adapting to the new lifestyle, Thai culture, practices and rules of conduct as a monk, and it also enables our community to get to know its new members in an unhurried way. In addition, being a novice and already living in the midst of the Sangha is a very conducive opportunity to reiterate or clarify ones own plans and possibly communicate them to parents and close family members before making the step to a full commitment to the bhikkhu life. The monastic code requires new monks to be under dependence of a teacher for a period of five years.

Requirements.Generally we have agreed upon an age limit of about fifty years for ordination. Other requirements for ordination are that one needs to be free from debts, free from government service, and free of major diseases such as epilepsy, HIV, cancer, etc.

Thai Visa&Financial issues during the transition from a lay person to a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu)

You should be careful not to cut off your financial life-line before coming to the monastary, because even though the monks freely share their almsfood and the monastery infrastructure with everyone, all guests and pah-kows still need to take responsibility for their private needs and business, such as medical care, visas, return airfare, and personal items such as toiletries, before becoming ordained. Especially the cost of visas over a long period can be significant. The visa situation normally requires making several trips to Laos or Malaysia. A trip costs about $150 (US).

Unfortunately, until you take the novice precepts, the monastery is not able to assist you in visa matters, other than coordinating the logistics and the timing (especially for your last visa-renewal before your Going Forth). Once you are a novice, though, the monastery will take care of your visa applications without you having to arrange for any payment. Before you come to Thailand you need to acquire a two-month tourist visa at any Thai embassy (or a longer tourist – or non-immigrant visa, if possible). Please, make sure your passport is still valid for a few years and has sufficient pages left for the numerous stamps you will need.

]]>http://welfort.com/why-yoga-may-have-happened/feed/0http://welfort.com/why-yoga-may-have-happened/Vipassana by Goenka 10-day course – DIY in one hour guidehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/welfort/meditations/~3/_N_BjRewTp4/
http://welfort.com/vipassana-by-goenka-10-day-course-diy-in-one-hour-guide/#respondSat, 23 Jul 2016 16:16:32 +0000http://www.welfort.com/?p=1407You can take one of Goenka’s 10-day vipassana courses. But what if you do not have 10 days for a meditation? Try to do it yourself at home in one hour with our easy to follow guide.

Vipassana is practiced to develop steadiness of mind, nonreactivity, neutral awareness, mindfulness by observing physical sensations and the body’s reactions to them. The main benefit of this meditation is reduced emotional reactivity, you will become less frustrated, irritated, hurt, insulted, upset, angry, scared, less often, and it passes more quickly.

Vipassana Short Instruction

Sit in a comfortable position;

Bring your attention to the sensations of air going in and out of your nostrils. Don’t try to change your breath pattern, just observe it, whatever it may be. Observe, if you can sense it, the change in temperature at the rims of your nostrils. If not, simply note whatever sensation is there, be it pressure, moisture, dryness, itching, pain… Anything you can feel. Perhaps you can feel the air rushing down towards your upper lip. Practice this stage 15 minutes;

Slowly scan your body from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes with your awareness. Observe the sensations on the surface of your body. Practice this stage for 45 minutes;